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A Sloth Who Likes to Read


"Stop reading," ordered the Mama. "Go outside."

I'd probably been lying on the bed reading for three or four hours that sunny summer weekend afternoon. I was probably 12 years old.

That's what the Mama got for buying me a bed with a bookcase headboard. It was packed full with paperback books that I purchased from the monthly Scholastic book catalog during the school year. Three or four dollars bought me a lot of books back then. I shall always be grateful the Mama and the Daddy let me buy so many, and for leaving me alone to read the books over and over most of the time.

Reading was my favorite thing to do in summer, followed by riding bicycles, watching movies, and eating. Except for the bicycle riding, I seem to have slipped back into my once-upon-a-time summer routine. I'm not getting much done, I admit. And, yes, my clothes are feeling snug. Again.

I really do need to urge me to step outside and do something. There's still time today to water the flowers in the backyard, or pick up all the apples and lemons that have dropped off the trees, or rake the leaves, or put everything back in the shed, or . . . .

Maybe I'll take my book outside with me as incentive. After each thing I finish, I can read a chapter.

Yeah, right.

I'm a grown-up. First things, first. But, that could be reading.

Silly me, thinking I can bribe or shame myself into doing things.


Comments

  1. You never have to apologise to me for being a reader. I was like you - still am. The perfect holiday includes books. Sick days cry out for books. Early mornings when the house is quiet .....you understand, I know!

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    Replies
    1. Most mornings, the Husband is on the ipad and I'm reading a chapter or two while we have breakfast. A lovely luxury.

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  2. I had to laugh. You would have gotten along great with my oldest son. In the summer I'd have to tell him to stop reading and go outside. (My neighbor told me she couldn't imagine having a child that she'd have to tell to stop reading.) Anyway, he'd take his book and go outside. Eventually the other kids would come along and he'd join in with their play. Before he even knew how to read he'd follow us around with a book and say, "Someone please read to me. I don't know how to read yet." If we were busy he'd really make us feel guilty. He's now 46 and still enjoys reading.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing, Betty. It's nice, even many years later, to know about adults who had parents telling them to stop reading, go outside. :-)

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  3. i used to carry a book in my back pocket everywhere i went.
    had a book rack so i could read at the table . . and, balanced books across the neck of my guitar when walking home from school . . yep, those stories were constant companions . . . were? what am i saying - they still are . . . and, yes! reading CAN come first . . love & love, -g-

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    Replies
    1. I can see every image. That would make for a sweet picture book.

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  4. I was an avid reader as a child and the subject of my abcw introduction is about a character called Worzel Gummidge. My sister Norma taught me to read before I went to school so i raced through the reading corriculum well before many and allowed me to take books from the school Library...such joy !
    Loved your illustration!
    Hope you three are well, (The husband Yourself and Molly the Cat)
    love and hugs,
    Di.
    ABCW team.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Di. In second grade, the teacher let me go into the book room whenever I finished my class work early. That was Heaven for me. Hugs.

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  5. Brilliant illustration.....love the cat hiding behind the flowers....maybe he is reading too!

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  6. loved the picture. And your childhood -- that was me as a child (except we didn't buy too many books, but oh did we haunt the library)! And I kind of still live like that . Definitely do if you count blog-reading along with books. Hours go by .... Only yesterday I was into a good book and forgot to go to my Yoga class, the one exercise along with walking that I enjoy. Sigh!

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  7. You need this summer for reading and enjoying a book to disappear into. Enjoy the days

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Thanks for the good cheer. :-)

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